Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

In the aftermath of World War II, Prussia - a centuries-old state pivotal to Europe's development - ceased to exist. In their eagerness to erase all traces of the Third Reich from the earth, the Allies believed that Prussia, the very embodiment of German militarism, had to be abolished. But as Christopher Clark reveals in this pioneering history, Prussia's legacy is far more complex.

The Arms of Krupp: 1587-1968

The Arms of Krupp brings to life Europe's wealthiest, most powerful family, a 400-year German dynasty that developed the world's most technologically advanced weapons, from cannons to submarines to antiaircraft guns; provided arms to generations of German leaders, including the Kaiser and Hitler; operated private concentration camps during the Nazi era; survived conviction at Nuremberg; and wielded enormous influence on the course of world events.

African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the continent of Africa was a hotbed of international trade, colonialism, and political gamesmanship. So when World War I broke out, the European powers were forced to contend with each other not just in the bloody trenches - but in the treacherous jungle. And it was in that unforgiving land that General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck would make history.

Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.

The World Remade: America in World War I

After years of bitter debate, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany on April 6, 1917, plunging the country into the savage European conflict that would redraw the map of the continent - and the globe. The World Remade is an engrossing chronicle of America's pivotal, still controversial intervention into World War I, encompassing the tumultuous politics and towering historical figures that defined the era and forged the future.

Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth

From Paul Ham, winner of the NSW Premier's Prize for Australian History, comes the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war.

With Their Bare Hands: General Pershing, the 79th Division, and the Battle for Montfaucon

With Their Bare Hands traces the fate of the US 79th Division - men drafted off the streets of Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia - from their training camp in Maryland through the final years of World War I, focusing on their most famous engagement: the attack on Montfaucon, the most heavily fortified part of the German Line, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918.

The Somme: The Darkest Hour on the Western Front

The Somme: these words conjure the image of war rigidly fought by traditional means even when catastrophe clearly loomed. Relying on personal testimonies never before published, this study of those who survived the first day of battle (July 1, 1916) captures this epic conflagration from all angles. Follow the action as soldiers crawl across No Man’s Land in the face of German guns, struggle with the conditions in the trenches, and survey the scene from the air as the RFC tries to control the skies above the battlefield.

The Forgotten Soldier

When Guy Sajer joins the infantry full of ideals in the summer of 1942, the German army is enjoying unparalleled success in Russia. However, he quickly finds that for the foot soldier the glory of military success hides a much harsher reality of hunger, fatigue, and constant deprivation. Posted to the elite Grosse Deutschland division, he enters a violent and remorseless world where all youthful hope is gradually ground down, and all that matters is the brute will to survive.

Somme: Into the Breach

No conflict better encapsulates all that went wrong on the Western Front than the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The tragic loss of life and stoic endurance by troops who walked towards their death is an iconic image which will be hard to ignore during the centennial year. Despite this, this book shows the extent to which the Allied armies were in fact able repeatedly to break through the German front lines.

To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World

To Rule the Waves tells the extraordinary story of how the British Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to a level of power unprecedented in history. From the navy's beginnings under Henry VIII to the age of computer warfare and special ops, historian Arthur Herman tells the spellbinding tale of great battles at sea, heroic sailors, violent conflict, and personal tragedy - of the way one mighty institution forged a nation, an empire, and a new world.

War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War

The Great War of 1914-1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize the resources of industrial powers against one another, resulting in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition between the world's great economies. Now, 100 years after the first guns of August rang out on the Western front, historian William Philpott reexamines the causes and lingering effects of the first truly modern war.

The Pursuit of Power: Europe: 1815-1914

Richard J. Evans's gripping narrative ranges across a century of social and national conflicts, from the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 to the unification of both Germany and Italy, from the Russo-Turkish wars to the Balkan upheavals that brought this era of relative peace and growing prosperity to an end. The first single-volume history of the century, this comprehensive and sweeping account gives the listener a magnificently human picture of Europe in the age when it dominated the rest of the globe.

The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World

The long-term repercussions of the Marne were tragic: four more years of what the future German military historian Gerhard Ritter, a veteran of World War I, called the "monotonous mutual mass murder" of the trenches. During that time, Britain and the Empire sustained 3.5 million casualties, France 6 million and Germany 7 million. Without the Battle of the Marne, places such as Passchendaele, the Somme, Verdun, and Ypres would not resonate with us as they do.

Berlin at War

In Berlin at War, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse provides a magnificent and detailed portrait of everyday life at the epicenter of the Third Reich. Berlin was the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played out. It was the backdrop for the most lavish Nazi ceremonies, the site of Albert Speer's grandiose plans for a new "world metropolis", and the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism.

Lincoln's Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac

The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.

Verdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, 1914-1918

Alongside Waterloo and Gettysburg, the Battle of Verdun during World War I stands as one of history’s greatest clashes. Yet it is also one of the most complex and misunderstood. Conventional wisdom holds that the battle began in February 1916 and lasted until December, when the victorious French wrested all the territory they had lost back from the Germans. In fact, says historian John Mosier, from the very beginning of the war until the armistice in 1918, no fewer than eight distinct battles were waged for the possession of Verdun.

The Storm of Steel

This classic war memoir, first published in 1920, is based on the author's extensive diaries describing hard combat experienced on the Western Front during World War I. It has been greatly admired by people as diverse as Bertolt Brecht and Andre Gide, and from every part of the political spectrum. Hypnotic, thrilling, and magnificent, The Storm of Steel is perhaps the most fascinating description of modern warfare ever written.

Fur Volk and Fuhrer: The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

Like many Germans, Berlin schoolboy Erwin Bartmann fell under the spell of the Zeitgeist cultivated by the Nazis. Convinced he was growing up in the best country in the world, he dreamt of joining the Leibstandarte, Hitler's elite Waffen SS unit. Tall, blond, blue-eyed, and just 17-years-old, Erwin fulfilled his dream on Mayday 1941, when he gave up his apprenticeship at the Glaser bakery in Memeler Strasse and walked into the Lichterfelde barracks in Berlin as a raw, volunteer recruit.

Gettysburg

Best-selling author and acclaimed Civil War expert Stephen W. Sears, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “arguably the preeminent living historian of the war’s eastern theater,” crafts what will stand the test of time as the definitive history of the greatest battle ever fought on American soil. Drawing on years of research, Sears focuses on the big picture, capturing the entire essence of the momentous three day struggle while offering fresh insights that will surprise even the best versed Civil War buffs.

To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949

The European catastrophe, the long continuous period from 1914 to1949, was unprecedented in human history - an extraordinarily dramatic, often traumatic, and endlessly fascinating period of upheaval and transformation.

Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris

Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit in his thirty-year ascent from a Viennese shelter for the indigent to uncontested rule over the German nation that had tried and rejected democracy in the crippling aftermath of World War I.

The Zimmermann Telegram

In the dark winter of 1917, as World War I was deadlocked, Britain knew that Europe could be saved only if the United States joined the war. But President Wilson remained unshakable in his neutrality. Then, with a single stroke, the tool to propel America into the war came into a quiet British office. One of countless messages intercepted by the crack team of British decoders, the Zimmermann telegram was a top-secret message from Berlin inviting Mexico to join Japan in an invasion of the United States.

Publisher's Summary

On July 1, 1916, British and French forces launched the first attack on the German armies lined up along the Somme in what was to become the defining battle of World War I. To this day, July 1 is often remembered for being the bloodiest day in British military history. Indeed, the British suffered some 62,000 casualties in that one day of fighting alone. As gruesome as that statistic is, it's just one of the many dark legacies left by the Somme Offensive. Among the others can be found all the sundry inhumanities of modern trench warfare: infantry lined up opposite machine guns; trench conditions in which vermin and disease were rampant; no-man's-land scattered with dead and dying; vicious gas attacks; soldiers rattled with shell shock. And yet, Philpott reminds us, without having fought and won this crucial battle, the Allied forces might never have prevailed over the Germans.

Here, Philpott boldly and convincingly breaks with the predominant view among historians, most of whom regard the Battle of the Somme as the worst of military tragedies. Three Armies on the Somme is an attempt to finally set the record straight: Many of the histories and memoirs written about this important battle - including those of the statesmen Winston Churchill and Lloyd George, both of which Philpott powerfully rebuts - recount the missteps of the British command but fail to account for the fact that General Haig was witnessing the spontaneous evolution of warfare as he marched his troops to battle.

It's often said that Haig was fighting a 20th century war using 19th century means. As Philpott shows, however, 20th century war as we know it simply didn't exist before the Battle of the Somme. New technologies developed, such as the machine gun and the armored tank; equally important were the technologies that couldn't develop fast enough: communications capabilities lagged far behind the commanders' needs for a battle of such scale. New methods of engagement were being drawn up along both lines, and as World War I raged on, it became clear that tactics aimed at attrition were the only feasible route to defeating powerful industrial nations that had made all their production and work force available in the name of war.

Allied forces initially billed the Battle of the Somme as a knockout punch to the Germans. Although this goal was almost certainly out of reach in 1916, the British and the French forces actually came much closer to defeating the Germans at the Somme than is popularly believed. At the very least, the Allies' hard-won victory in Picardy gave British and French soldiers the experience, confidence, and knowledge necessary to bring the Great War to an end.

William Philpott has given us an exciting and indispensable work of history - one that challenges our received ideas about the Battle of the Somme and about the very nature of modern warfare.

This book, to put it quite simply, is a detailed analysis of the Battle of the Somme which took place in the latter half of 1916, and when I say detailed, boy do I mean it. Philpott doesn't just break down the battle, he uses it as a springboard to break down strategic goals and ideas held throughout the war, from 1914, to 1918, again in detail, as well as a breakdown of how the Battle of the Somme is viewed throughout history, all the way up to 2006, sometimes in mind numbing detail. By framing the Somme in the context of the war as a whole, he offers an insightful view of what was truly accomplished during what is widely considered a parriac victory, if not an actual defeat of British forces during 1916. His analysis and view of the entire Western Front, including the often glossed over role of the French Army, allow for an in depth look at Industrial Warfare and its execution as the Entente armies transitioned into a more modern form of fighting, as well as an example of Attritional Warfare executed in perhaps it's most pure form.

To do this, the book pulls from memoirs and writings of soldiers who fought in and around the battle, as high command officers from both sides in order to create a reasonably complete picture of how the strategic situation was forming and being received, and the political masters who tried to either control the strategic situation. Additionally, Philpott goes into exhaustive detail about troop movements and objectives, and home front politics and reactions to the ongoing war.

In the end it can get to be simply too much information, especially during the troop movements, where it can go on for several minutes in long stretches of listing army groups and corps, and a list of their objectives, mind numbingly too much. However if you're able to look past these stretches, you'll come away with an interesting new view of this battle, and if you've never heard of it, you'll learn a valuable part of history of an important battle that helped shape national identities, if not how the entire world looked at the war.

The narrator, James Adams, is a perfect choice for the job. His English accent and clear concise way of speaking allows him to convey the information in the book without getting tangled up in the long intermingling lists of French, English and German names and is all around pleasant to listen to for long stretches of time, which you'll need because this is a long audio book. He is able to convey the gravity and the breadth of the information without becoming droning or boring, however that is mainly my own opinion, and no doubt there will be those who could fall asleep to the narration.

When all is said and done I'd highly recommend this audiobook, the information is detailed, the subject matter is interesting, and the narrator is excellent. Philpott comes across as a reasonable scholar, debunking misconceptions and outright untruths, while presenting well sourced information and alternative outlooks on this battle based upon facts and the situation as it was viewed at the time.

Would you consider the audio edition of Three Armies on the Somme to be better than the print version?

I would have liked to have the spellings of the French names and places. The narrator makes a decent effort at pronunciation but falls short in a number of places. If you don't speak French then you may not notice.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The French generals are painted as real people with an analysis of their military effectiveness nicely borne out in the progress of the battle. English accounts of the Somme ignore the vital role of the French.

Which scene was your favorite?

First person accounts are nicely woven into the narrative of the battle as it unfolded

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

By the end of the book whatever conception you had of the Somme battles will be forever changed. I learned quite a bit about weaponry, tactics, and strategy; even having a strong background knowledge of WWI. This book is a must read for anyone wanting to know the intricate details of a WWI battle.

I have one of the medals shown on the cover of this book framed and hanging on my wall. It's from my grandfather's service in the British army during WWI. Aside from that medal and a side plot on Downton Abbey, I knew very little about the Great War. William Philpot cured that an exceptionally detailed analysis of the battle that changed the course of the war. The detail is great (you may want to have a map of France in front of you while you listen), but it's the analysis of the Battle of the Somme's place in both the course of the war and the evolution of modern warfare that sets this book apart. Philpot does a deep dive into the strategic challenges of what he calls the first "industrial war" where armies are too big and complex to be defeated in a single battle but instead have to be ground down by attrition. He makes sense out of the eventual allied victory in 1918 where Germany launched a successful breakout that pushed the Allies back 30 miles only to suffer a catastrophic collapse because the previous two years had depleted military reserves needed to sustain its presence on the battlefield. Philpot makes a convincing argument that the Somme, for all the carnage suffered by the British, was the beginning of end for Germany.<br/>Philpot also places the Somme in the larger evolution of modern warfare. This is the battle that began with soldiers forming up in long lines to be mowed down by machine gun fire and ended with the arrival of the first primitive tanks destroying those same machine gun nests. If you have any curiosity about the first world war, this book is the place to start.

This is a very detailed narrative that covers the military history of WWI from the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. The author's discussion goes through to the end of the war but the emphasis is from July 1, 1916 to the end of 1916. The characterization of the battle as the first battle of the twentieth century is emphasized by the author's constant reference to the battle as the beginning of industrial war.There is much more to the book than just a description of horrific casualty figures. The author provides a very good analysis of the changes that were brought to the battlefield by the increased industrialization of society. One of the major changes is that WWI is the only war where the majority of casualties were caused by artillery and not guns and bullets.The author does a good job of explaining how the French beginning with the Battle of Verdun developed tactics that made greater use of artillery on the battlefield. The English had such great casualties on July 1, 1916 because they refused to utilize the knowledge that had been gained by the French. Slowly the English changed their tactics and developed greater manpower resources than the French. This allowed them to take the greater burden of the fight against the Germans.With the beginning of the Somme the Germans slowly began losing the war. The author provides a good description of the changes in tactics made by Ludendorff in the German offensive of early 1918. However, industrial war became a contest of resources which Germany could not win.This book introduced new ideas into the discussion of how WWI was fought. It also provided a good narrative of the battlefield action and the personalities of the leading generals. The author's new insights made it a very good book about a conflict that has been overshadowed by the rest of the violence of the twentieth century. I did think it was a bit long but it was never boring.

The Battle of the Somme is recalled in most literature in very Anglo-centric terms. Usually the recollection is great swathes of khaki swept aside by as the author puts it industrial warfare. But this story relates that besides the khaki are horizon bleu and field gray. Illuminating, instructive, and informative. A must read for those interested in the Great War!

It is a fantastic audiobook but it leans towards the English in most cases. The Germans are described as incompetent and blindly flailing away during the battle where in every move that the Haig does is calculated for the greater good and what he sees far reaching . It goes against almost every thing I've ever read about Haig and his decision-making